Press bungles attempts to take down Rubio, Carson

The news media shot blanks this week after a couple of outlets published stories on Republican presidential candidates that could have severely damaged or ended their campaigns, but instead led to even more media criticism.

Ben Carson, tied with Donald Trump as the national front-runner and No. 2 in the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, and Marco Rubio, trailing in third place and on the rise, were targets of new stories that dug into their pasts and questioned the candidates' integrity. In both cases, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee claimed bias on behalf of the "mainstream media."